CaliSoxFanViaSWside

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Feb 13, 2015 -> 12:24 PM) Any bets on when Teuvo gets traded? That seems to be the usual SOP. How good would Jimmy Hayes look now instead of Bickell ? Brad Richards not impressing.Sharp stats are down, Hossa was bad offensively until his recent torrid streak. H Its amazing when you look around the league how much talent the Hawks have given up, Byfuglien , Ladd, Hayes, Vrbata ,Troy Brouwer ,Nick Leddy , even Frolik is having a decent year for Winnipeg.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Feb 12, 2015 -> 11:13 AM) Yeah I just re-read my post and see that it reads like I was punching walls while writing it. I have a problem with coming off way angrier than I want to. I really am trying to work on that even though I'm failing. Sorry. To be clear: any rage that did exist in my last post is directed toward Charles Barkley, lol. The only thing directed toward you or greg is some mild exasperation I actually think what you said about thread pinning makes sense -- I can see a good argument hat all acquisitions should be up there until at least the start of the season. I never take offense at your replies to me because I know what I write is USUALLY well thought out and I know the subjects that I am less informed about I cannot have very strong convictions about them .

QUOTE (Reddy @ Feb 12, 2015 -> 11:09 AM) It ends up becoming an argument of: Would you rather be the most popular, or the best? Support for advanced stats puts us in the latter category (although we probably also happen to be in the first as well, among White Sox fan sites) Your opinion is just as valid as mine . Maybe I am wrong in assuming players and contending interests fans more than advanced stats. Advanced stats do not appeal to everyone whereas I'm pretty sure all that come here like to read and talk about the players and our chances of winning. I don't know a damn thing about running a website but I think people coming back again and again matters more if Jason gets any revenue from this venture. But it's his website and if he thinks advanced stats bring more than just diehards here then so be it.

Eminor I hope you understand my rant was half truthful and more comedically intented in nature. Writing is more my thing than math so once in a while I write things just to get it off my chest with some humor and hopefully it's understood I meant no slights to anyone. But I still don't understand why it takes precedent over offseason acquisitions in the pinned area. I assume Soxtalk wants to grow as a community so even the casual fan can find things that appeal to them by dropping in here and lurking before eventually feeling comfortable enough to make posts. I realize threads "run their course " and the discussions of acquistions is old news at this point but the players and a chance at a successful season and the excitement it has generated are usually the primary interest of fans in general . I understand what is pinned is not my decision to make . It's just my feeling that having the best Sox topics pinned or on the front page is the best way to keep people who show up here interested in coming back rather then having them look at page after page of what's been discussed over the past few months rather than the first thing they see being FAQ about advanced stats.

Heard Barkley's rant last night . Wondered if there would be something on here but I fail to see how it stays in PHT . Are all sabremetric discussions now required reading ? I mean, I try ,I really do, to understand some of the more frequently used new terms to stay abreast of things. Can't say I enjoy reading sooooooooo much about it though. I enjoy my sports which mostly consists of watching and drawing my own conclusions on players. Around here or any forum where younger people gather I'm thankful for the broadening of my horizons. However, I can definitely say it hasn't enhanced my enjoyment level of sports , probably has even lowered it a little bit to be honest. My math education stopped at Algebra 2 so everytime someone starts in with coeffeicients and variables yada yada yada, I get bored to tears. Is this math class or the place to discuss White Sox baseball. I see people ask what is FIP or something else. I'm like are you kidding me ? You're on a computer ! You have the world at your fingertips ! Stick it in a search engine and you can find all the stuff on it your little heart ever desired. You get rants like Hawk and Barkley and now me I guess because you guys never give it a rest . We have a permanently pinned section on it for whatever reason .All the offseason acquisitions should be pinned till at least opening day because thats what interests Sox fans who might wander into this place infrequently. What do they see pinned? FAQ's about advanced physics. We rant because we sucked at math and we feel dumb again, but even sucking it was still simple to understand ERA and fielding percentage and batting average. Now I need a degree from MIT.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 11, 2015 -> 03:30 AM) Did Avi say he was 14 years old when he was playing in rookie ball? At around 15 minutes...shouldn't he have been 16 at least? ...or he was just trying to be funny 14 in rookie ball .

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Feb 9, 2015 -> 09:58 AM) Anyone think that due to the unknown with Avi and his tendency to hit the ball on the ground, he should bat 7th and not 5th? Having a ground ball hitter batting behind LaRoche does not sound like a good idea. I'm thinking Alexei batting 5th could be a better idea. Alexei would bring some speed to the middle of the order which could alleviate ground ball DP's and move Avi to 7th and maybe take some pressure off of him. At this point, Alexei is a better run producer than Avi so why not? 1- Eaton 2- Melky 3- Abreu 4- LaRoche 5- Ramirez 6- Gillaspie 7- Avi 8- Flowers 9- Bonifacio/Beckham/Sanchez/Johnson Avi will be faster this year from the weight loss and it's possible that we are overthinking his GB rate .It's probably safe to say that nothing in his hitting career thus far is set in stone nor in his fielding for that matter. Between his K's and speed DP's shouldnt be a problem .

QUOTE (Yoda @ Feb 9, 2015 -> 04:45 AM) .298 35HR 124RBI .416 OBP .298 but .416 OBP ? That's a lot of walks. How's he going to get 124 RBI walking so much ?

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Feb 6, 2015 -> 08:01 PM) Would there be interest if we made a spreadsheet with everyone's picks for like 5-10 Abreu categories, and then at the end of the year you get a rank for each category. For example, whoever is closest to guessing his HRs gets a 1 for HR category. Say the next closest is a tie they both get a 2 and the next poster would get a 4. Like golf, lowest score total gets the trophy. I think it would be fun only because his numbers could be anywhere from good to ridiculous. And we could post leaderboards every month or something. I think some good formulas in excel could probably spit out leaderboards simply by inputting Abreu's current stats. Oh fine now do it when everyone expects great things. :PLast year the predictions were hopeful yet not expecting much. Now they all will be pretty much a like . If you do it it needs to be done with as many categories as possible since many of the predictions will be nearly the same and more categories will separate the pack.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 6, 2015 -> 11:02 AM) This Cuban dynamo was awesome last year - .317, 36, 107, .964. Can he do better? He certainly seemed to learn as the season went on in terms of batting average, while he lost a bit of power down the stretch. So... what's he going to do this year? My guess is .305/42/118/1.002 Been there ,done that ,nailed it . However I will say I think his OBP reaches over .400

Lttle ditty bout" Jackin' Dayan , a Cuban kid playin' ball in the heartland. Dayan's gonna be a baseball star. Wait, no ,Dayan ,he ain't goin' far.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ Feb 1, 2015 -> 03:06 PM) I'm going to guess the Great Dane represents Danish and Praying Mantis is Montas. I think you got it. I'm so used to seeing brown Great Danes' seeing one black didn't even think it was a Great Dane. I also thought an actual danish type pastry was used more in the past on here like the Basset hound pics were used for Chris Bassitt . Mantis/ Montas should've registered but hey drugs.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 1, 2015 -> 05:45 PM) You specifically said "ranking NL teams as superior hardly makes much sense based on that alone". Based on that, I would conclude that a team with 5 Clayton Kershaws in their rotation should not be called the best staff in the league if it's in the NL. Yes, the NL is easier on pitchers, but that doesn't mean you can't rank them above any AL teams if they're a really good staff. You can't even quote what I said right when its right there for you to copy and paste . I said " Ranking NL teams pitching as superior hardly makes much sense based on that alone." Left out the word pitching kind of makes a difference even if your response was based on what i actually said and not what you quoted. Every NL starting pitcher doesn't face a DH a couple times a game . Impossible to prove that while NL starting pitchers stats may look better that the pitchers themselves are better based on those stats. But most assume AL starting pitchers do better in the NL and NL starting pitchers do worse in the AL. Saying the top 3 starting pitching staffs are in the NL is just way too hard to quantify because comparing the uncomparable doesnt work. Where you came up with the Kershaw nonsense is beyond me. But maybe it's me and I can't follow your logic or conclusions based on what you think I meant .

Thank you . Excelent !

If it was on paper it would be fish wrap.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 1, 2015 -> 03:07 PM) This is something we can understand the impact of pretty easily. Would you say that Clayton Kershaw would be an average pitcher in the AL? C'Mon. Who said anything about Kershaw being average in the AL ? 9 hitters vs 8 hitters and a pitcher . Abreu at DH , Miggy at DH vs. NL pitchers hitting. C'mon.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Feb 1, 2015 -> 09:30 AM) Well, NOW I'm excited. Before too long: 1 2 3 4 5 OR Devastating. OK I get Condor is Sale and Shark is Samardzija and Quetzecoatl is Quintana is that Pterodactyl represents the Monster Rodan (Rodon) but the last 2 have me stumped.

NL pitchers get the advantage of facing a pitcher a few times a game. Ranking NL teams pitching as superior hardly makes much sense based on that alone.

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Jan 26, 2015 -> 10:55 AM) IMHO, there's no reason not to be enthusiastic. The Sox recognized the many holes on the team and addressed a majority of them. They still have some question marks but overall I think Hahn nailed it so far this winter and gave fans lots of hope and even more to talk about. Plus, they should have some wiggle room in the payroll if they need to make a trade or two at the deadline. CaliSoxFan and I were discussing earlier in the off season about how this was the year to get free agents since they had plenty of money to spend, the Sox 1st pick is protected and there were free agents available (Melky, Robertson, LaRoche, Duke) that could fill holes and that's exactly what the Sox did. Everything was in alignment for a big winter and I could not be happier with what Hahn and co have accomplished so far. Man, I cannot wait til ST! Go Sox! Ha yes we nailed it but I was always shocked when predictions for the 2015 payroll were going around here. I was like wtf doesn't anyone see the obvious ? The Sox were in a position that doesn't come along very often and to NOT take advantage of it would be akin to franchise suicide. You went from hopeful to not hopeful until I called you out on thinking Reindorf just wouldn't spend the money and we got you changed back to hopeful again.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 25, 2015 -> 01:20 PM) Final Sox Fest post from Brian - Three Big Takeaways from Sox Fest. Some nice insight in there. Great job with the Hahn interview and the article.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 25, 2015 -> 05:44 AM) Vince is a bit of a loose canon. He had a lot of trouble during his playing days in NY. IIRC he and KW got into it many years ago at a Cubs/Sox tilt when he was a minor league imstructor for the Cubs. The Sox wouldn't let him sit in the dugout during the game which was their right. There supposedly was a pretty crazy argument between the two around the batting cage. Hopefully, he has matured and can get better results from these guys on the bases. IMO, however, if he can make 25 steal guys 50 steal guys during spring training, he probably wouldn't be available. The Sox had Tim Raines around a lot never seemed to help but I'll keep an open mind.

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 06:45 AM) Don't know how I missed this post but good one. I love a good laugh, we'll done! TYVM

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 05:47 PM) My response has nothing to do with your opinion on Avi though -- your post is essentially telling people to stop posting if they disagree with what you're saying. You're original post was literally discouraging the expression of a dissenting opinion, it wasn't expressing your own opinion. I suppose it was saying there's way too much negative stuff considering the awesome off season but that's how I feel so it is my opinion. I could literally say I don't want to see any negative stuff and that wouldn't effect how people post one bit. I expect all that stuff and without it I wouldn't have anyone to hassle . Doesn't phase me in the least that I know how you feel about Avi because you've literally said it 10 times if you've said it once just as you know I think he's hugely talented. Without your ying I have no yang. Better ? Carry on.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 06:35 AM) I don't think this is fair at all. Firstly, are we supposed to avoid discussing anything that isn't overwhelmingly positive? Negativity doesn't "equal brainiac," but objective does equal "reality," and we're fans that want to talk about Sox as they actually are. Secondly, there's much more to it than "he's strong young and fast and tore up AAA." There are specific types of flaws we've seen in players that have correlated to high bust rates and many of them are present in Avisail Garcia. No one is saying that he's hopeless, but there's a huge level of risk with him and it's coming in a year where the Sox have no replacement at all. We're depending on him taking a huge step forward next year to contribute to success needed to justify the acquisitions and risks that have been taken elsewhere on the roster. I don't mean this next question to sound as harsh as it reads -- it's more a rhetorical question -- but if you don't want to think about it and just want to go into the season hoping instead of knowing what you might expect, what are you doing on a message board? Who said I wanted to be fair ? Opinions don't have to be fair . You got yours I got mine . If I was all that bothered by negativity I would've been gone long ago. I personally believe Avi wil turn out to be a pretty good player regardless of the flaws that are there. I am counting on him to makes strides mentally, defensivey and offensively . That's the great thing about youth , they can get much better or those flaws will eat them alive. It's the same with all of them , keep up or move aside. I don't see any threads that say "I'm drinking the Kool-aid " so I'm pretty used to the "biting nails" aspect of fandom. The good thing about getting old is that things get put in their proper perspective without all the youthful "gnashing of teeth" . Gnash away one and all but once in a while you'll get chided for it .

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jan 22, 2015 -> 10:26 AM) The pitch mix thing is super interesting. Is it a temporary KC coaching effect, or is it an example of a guy evolving as he ages and his stuff diminishes? Maybe it was his slider that was getting hit for the HR's and since he basically abandoned the slider the HR's have decreased .